Breakthrough boasted by algae-to-energy company

Bionavitas, a Seattle-area energy startup, just announced that it has solved a major problem in the algae-to-energy business: self-shading. The company says this has the potential to rocket ahead algae as a carbon-neutral fuel source.

Bionavitas provided this pic to show how the technology gets the light to penetrate deep into the algae

This “self-shading” phenomenon results in a layer that limits the amount of algae per acre that can be grown and harvested. The Light Immersion Technology developed by Bionavitas fundamentally changes this equation by enabling the algae growth layer in open ponds to be up to a meter deep. This represents a 10 to 12 time increase in yield over previous methods that produced only 3-5 centimeters of growth.

The so-called “light immersion technology” is said to be cost-efficient, as well as a “passive, low-input, net energy positive system which is inexpensive to mass produce.”

Full disclosure: We are not experts on making algae into energy. And, of course, claims like this need to be verified. But as we’ve noted before here and here, algae sure seems like it has the potential to really help put the brakes on global warming.